Lead Contamination & Children

[Skid_MacMarx]

Study confirms Mount Isa lead contamination

A Queensland Health report has confirmed that more than 11 per cent of 400 children tested in Mount Isa have elevated lead levels in their blood.

The department's Dr Linda Selvey says Queensland Health will carry out more blood tests and continue to monitor and manage the children.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/22/2252611.htm

There were similar concerns here in Newcastle, when the smelter was operating out at Boolaroo.

Considering the scale of operations up there, compared to Newcastle, it will be interesting what action will be taken by the company and government.

Also, there was a warning, some time ago, in regards to lead paint and families renovating older inner city houses. . .

This can lead to elevated blood¬lead levels that recent research has shown may slow down the rate at which a child can learn and develop. Children at greatest risk are aged less than 7 years. More significantly, all cases of acute child lead poisoning admitted to Sydney hospitals in recent years have been attributed to lead paint renovation activities in the home.

http://isyourhousekillingyou.sbs.com.au/pr.../leadpaint.html

[Thudd1503560234]

As kids we used to breath in lead fumes from cars and it didn't do us any harm at all

didn't do us any harm at all

didn't do us any harm at all

didn't do us any harm at all

elephants

wo wo zuzz meeg

[DrP]

Considering the scale of operations up there, compared to Newcastle, it will be interesting what action will be taken by the company and government.

Given the scale of the operation and the length of time Mt Isa has had lead spraying all over it.... absolutely nothing, or so close to nothing as to make the outcome the same as nothing. The only useful way to address the sheer quantity of lead (and other) dust all over the place would be to dig a very very large hole and bulldoze the entire town into it, then keep bulldozing until two feet depth of earth is removed and start from scratch.

Is your house killing you? In some cases, yes

[Skid_MacMarx]

DrP, it appears actions taken down here to remedy the situation didn't have any effect:

The EPA was shown evidence that blood lead levels in children remained high despite house remediation, greening and constant cleaning, The NHMRC goal for children for 1998 was no more than 10% of children from 1-4 years should have blood lead levels above 10mg/dL. This goal was not achieved. The percentage of children 1-4 years with levels of 10mg/dL or above continues to decrease from 88% in 1991 to 40% in 1999. The PHU released results of blood lead monitoring for 2000 showing that the percentage of children under 5 with levels over 10mg/dL had actually risen to 47 %. The current goal for blood levels is that no children be above 10mg/dL.

Although the anti-pollution campaign against Pasminco has mostly focused on lead, the smelter "…faced closure because of its consistent failure to meet World Health Organisations (WHO) goals for sulphur dioxide emissions." A health risk assessment in 1998 found that cadmium and arsenic emissions posed a cancer risk of 1.67 in 10,000 people." Currently the smelter is facing pollution fines of $250,000 over a massive mercury spill into Lake Macquarie on April 4 2001.

Weighed down by low zinc prices and business practices Pasminco went into voluntary administration in September 2001 with debts of up to $3.4 billion.

http://www.wesleymission.org.au/publicatio..._c/pasminco.asp

[DrP]

That's the problem with long term heavy metal contamination. Curing the problem involves taking away so much material that its easier to simply pack up and move somewhere else.